3 Year Bike Stat Anniversary

Is there a standardized gift for year 3? Aluminum? Carbon? Maybe it's only spandex, LOL! That's OK, I could use some new shorts!

The summer slump continues, but history shows me that I'll recover. The chart of my rides and miles by year:

And I have two graphs showing nearly the same thing; I just couldn't decide which one was prettier!

All the weeks spread out with outdoor miles in blue and trainer miles in red:

All miles by week and year:

Hope those colors don't make your eyes cross!

Well, not too much to be learned from these, they are just fun to post! Obviously, I like to ride in fall and spring and the computrainer made a big difference.

(These charts vary ever so slightly from the previous charts I posted of each year as I had to tweak the way I numbered the weeks to make the years line up right. Also, I added a previously missing trainer ride into 2007 that it turned out I had stats for after all. There were some others that I didn't record, believe it or not =P!)

"No matter what..."

Sometime last week I said to Jeff, "Let's go mountain biking this weekend, no matter what." That was before I bought the new trail runners and did 4.30 miles on a whim! In fact, when I set up the mtn bike 'date' with Jeff, if you had told me I'd be doing a run like that yesterday, I wouldn't have believed you and laughed hysterically at the very idea!

Apparently the run didn't excuse me from mountain biking! Since I wasn't really feeling that bad, just tired with achy shoulder blades and some muscle pain in the groin/hip area, I agreed to go as long as Jeff got the bikes ready and lifted them in and out of the truck. We went to Freetown State Forest to ride.

I haven't biked off road in ages, so I was quite pathetic, but it was so fun anyway. I had to walk over the large cobble washouts and picked my way on foot around a couple of very muddy, yellowy-green, frog filled puddles after very nearly going in one. My body felt fine as long as I was on the bike, but it was hard going when I walked.

We actually rode right through this sort of puddle easily, but it got quite boggy further on and I didn't feel inclined to get the camera out and be easy mosquito food.

Are we there yet?

Jeff got us to 'The Ledges', our goal, before turning and heading back to the start.

The loop we did came out to 10.42 miles.

The First "Run" (...er...shuffle?)

After shelling out for the trail runners today, I felt like I couldn't let them just sit in the box, so I went for a test run this evening. I hoped a positive attitude would get me through it and the biking fitness might carry over a bit.

I optimistically picked a route mostly off road. It turned out to be 4.30 miles (I posted it wrong on Twitter and Facebook earlier). I ran some of it, jogged slowly for most and walked a few bits like the muddy areas and some of the hill at the end.

My aerobic fitness was fine as my legs couldn't go fast enough to cause me to have any breathing trouble, LOL! I really felt it in my feet and I guess groin to hip, some muscle there was not happy. Trail running is hard too because I had to pick up my feet so far and place them somewhat carefully and try not to have too much lateral movement which I am not used to at all. There was crushed stone that got tiring as it made me slip back a little with each step.

The trail was very pretty. Here are a couple of turn stiles by a cow pasture.

Boardwalks and bridges keep you out of the worst of the mud.

Have you ever noticed that it's impossible to take a pic of your own foot that doesn't make your leg look weird? The shoes felt really good so far.

After the exercising, I thought it would feel good to wade in the cold ocean, so we took the dogs over to the town beach. It's very rocky there, but we had a good time. Silas even saved one of my flip flops when a wave took it off my foot and started to carry it away from shore! Then, he thought the flip flop belonged to him and barked at my feet, wanting it back!



I'm not sure how much of a rest I'll need after today's run, but hopefully I'll get out there on my feet again soon!

Don't hold your breath,

but a little running might happen now that I at least have some shoes to do it in. It's so humid today that I worked at getting through my list of chores that involved being in air conditioned buildings. I may have had a little heat stroke from going out in the sun between stores as I ended up in the Eastern Mountain Sports store spontaneously buying these trail runners!!

I hope to try them out soon along some roads and on the nearby Sakonnet Greenway trails (that don't allow bikes!). I'll be the weirdo running in padded bike shorts, until I get some running ones ;)

July Metric at Jamestown

I think the July and August Metrics may end up being the hardest of the year for me given that I don't feel well exercising in the sun and heat and am going through my summer slump! While I may be 'well rested' I just don't have the motivation or dedication when it gets warmer and sunnier and there are many mellow activities to distract me.

However, last Sunday I did feel inspired watching my friend Jamie at a local tri.

Seeing him and all the others riding made me want to pedal. Something about the whoosh of all those bike wheels going by makes me feel a little giddy =)

Today, Jeff briefly went to work to tie up any loose ends, then took the day off to do the July metric with me. We decided that laps of Conanicut Island would be our least trafficy option and the shady parts would be occasional relief from the sun. I was anxious to get the metric done today as it was a coolish, dry day and muggy weather is due again soon.

Jeff hasn't done enough rides this summer and trailed along behind me for two laps before deciding to skip the last one to avoid serious pain later. I pushed on and managed to finish the metric distance though I got much slower toward the end. I got hungry and was low on fluid and the wind picked up a lot. As I was heading out Beavertail the third time the wind was getting so strong I was only concentrating on turning over the crank and not as aware of the road as I should have been until a deer was suddenly right beside me, pivoting away on its back legs to leap back into the woods. I guess it hadn't smelled or heard me coming as I was downwind of it. I'm not sure who was more startled! It was actually the third deer sighting of the day. On the first lap, we saw a doe and small, spotted fawn.

Here's a view to the west from Beavertail Point showing the bright, sunny day.

And one of Jeff with the Beavertail Light in the background. It's not quite as picturesque as usual as there is scaffolding on it at the moment.

Elevation Profile:

Speed Profile:

July Metric Stats
62.47 miles
4:14 hours
14.7 mph average...going in the wrong direction =(
3,289' elevation gain
1 nutty power bar and 1 bottle of Gatorade 1 bottle of citrus Nuun for fuel